Football
Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent 7y

Arsenal's Arsene Wenger still out to improve himself as he turns 67

LONDON -- As Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger turns 67 on Saturday, the Premier League's elder statesman insists he is still capable of learning new tricks.

After 20 years at the club, Wenger's critics sometimes say the Frenchman is no longer the visionary he once was and that he has fallen behind a new crop of younger, hungrier managers who are now bringing fresh ideas into the game.

On the eve of his birthday, Wenger states that is not case, saying his passion for winning and perfecting his methods has yet to be weakened by age, though he acknowledges that being the oldest manager in the Premier League can make him an easier target for critics.

"I would prefer to be the youngest one in the league," he told a news conference. "But it's part of life. I believe you forget your age if you are in good health and all the rest, [if] inside you is a love for competition and a love to improve every day. That is the most important. After that, age is age. You have to live with that.

"It's like [being] a former player. Once you hit a certain age, always when you have a bad game people think, 'they have to go.' That's why the demands are even higher than before -- because your age becomes a psychological excuse quickly to get rid of you."

The calls from Arsenal fans to get rid of Wenger have decreased considerably over the last couple of months, with the team joint-top of the Premier League standings going into Saturday's home game against Middlesbrough.

They are on a seven-game winning run in all competitions, and playing the type of high-scoring, attacking football that has often been their hallmark under Wenger.

Some, however, still wonder whether he has what it takes to keep up with the current crop of rival Premier League managers, with Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte having joined the likes of Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino in challenging for the title this season.

"I believe I manage my club in a different way than five years ago," Wenger said. "If I give myself credit for one thing, [it's that] I like to have evolution and to go with the modern times. After that, you watch my team play, and you like it or you don't like it and I have to live with that. Or we win or we lose, and I have to live with that."

Even at nearly 67, Wenger maintains a fitness level that would be the envy of many men half his age. He runs daily, eats healthily, and practices all the things he preaches when it comes to staying fit.

"I do everything. If all the professional footballers live like I do, I tell you they'd all be in good shape for 10 months," he said.

As to where that drive to train every day comes from, Wenger could not say.

"You are like that, or you're not like that," he said. "I often analyse that in fact with the players. When I look at the players, where does that drive come from? Many times it can come from a miss in your education, or a desire to prove that you have quality. I don't know where it comes from, but I have had it since I was a kid, and I think I will die like that."

Wenger is in the final year of his current Arsenal contract and has yet to decide on his future, but reiterated again that he has no thoughts of retiring anytime soon, and that he has a hard time ever seeing himself stepping away from the game.

"I never liked the 'retirement' word," he said. "Life is no other issue than to fight until the last day of your life as much as you can."

But as he gets older, Wenger did acknowledge that he wonders sometimes whether his life should be about more than football.

"I've said if God exists and one day I will go up there, he will ask me, 'Do you want to come in here?'" Wenger said. "And he will ask me, 'What have you done in your life?' The only answer I have is, 'I tried to win football games.' And he will certainly say, 'Is that all you have done?' And the only answer I will have is, 'It's not as easy as it looks.'"

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